Our language is constantly changing. New words are added, other words deleted. The gender issue has made us aware of how language can change our perceptions. The primary purpose of any language is to communicate. Does it really matter if you dangle a participle? Will anyone care if you split an infinitive?

Star Trek hurled us into space in 1966 when Capt. James T. Kirk began each episode with the famous opening that ended with the words “to boldly go where no man has gone before.” Grammarians, appalled at the split infinitive, said the line should read “to go boldly where no man has gone before.”

However, in 1966, the women’s liberation movement was in full swing, and more people took offense at the word

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